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All Star Superman (US - BD)

Marcus watches the animated version of All Star Supes and still ain't fussed...

Feature

Back in 2005 Grant Morrison tackled Superman and gave us the tale of the Man of Steel pumped up with too much sun and living with the secret that his life is coming to an end, revealing his secret identity to Lois, interviewing Lex Luthor on death row (as Clark of course), and doing his best to stop the sun from turning blue. Supes is shown off as the calmest hero the world has ever known in the face of crisis and plays with the kookier sci-fi aspects of his long history. Now Bruce Timm and the DC Universe boys get their animated adaptation skills back into full swing and bring us the fan favourite All Star Superman.

I’m gonna get straight to the point with this one—the comic run of All Star Superman did nothing for me. I found it awkward and cold and not at all the ground-breaking piece of work it’s been applauded as. This animated movie didn’t spark all that different a response from me and while it was full of little moments I quite liked (Lex talking to Clark about how different Mr. Kent is from Superman is great stuff), the story as a whole left me underwhelmed and not feeling entirely sure why a section of the audience went so ga-ga for Grant Morrison’s work.

While we’re on Grant Morrison, I’m in the group that are a little mystified by his approach to comics of late, despite loving some of his earlier work ( Arkham Asylum is one of my faves). His run on New X-men was the beginning of my falling out of love with the mutants (not that I’d pin their fall from grace on his shoulders entirely) and his ‘killing’ of Batman left me scratching my head (as it did a number of comic book readers). It’s not that I don’t like his writing—I think he approaches his work with a genuine intelligence—it’s more that his tactics seems to be to rip everything apart in the wildest way possible, willingly disregarding the audience and then cobble everything back together in ways he fully understands but isn’t too fussed if no one else does.

Now none of this is a bad thing. In fact there’s a whole host of comics out there that need this sort of kick up the ass but on a personal note I just don’t go for his approach with All Star Superman. I just don’t see ‘my’ Superman in there anywhere, which I know is a bit single-minded, but this Superman (voiced not too well James Denton) just seems too distant, too cold and his decision making just doesn’t tie into my feelings on Superman as a character.

Morrison discusses on many of the features (more on that later) that his approach harks back to Superman of thirty years ago and his more off-beat/sci-fi/goofy elements that writers tend to forget/avoid in the modern arena and again there’s nothing wrong with this, especially considering his approach is handled well, but it’s still a hard pill to swallow. I just don’t buy Superman feeding star eaters in his free time (especially considering how heavy a plot device it turns out to be) and treating the fortress of solitude like a mini Krypton or a Batcave. I know, I know, this again comes down to personal feelings on the Superman mythology, but in this story's case I just don’t feel it and this flavour of Superman just don’t feed my view of the man that Clark Kent/Kal-El is. Oh and this is probably the weakest depiction of Lois Lane in years, even with Christina Hendricks seeming like a great idea when the project was announced.

Video

I love, love, love the look of these DC Universe animated movies and they are moving ever closer to the Japanese high end projects the makers are obviously trying to replicate. At this stage watching these projects has become as much about my interest in the on-going development of the animation styles as it is about my love of the characters and the animation here is really reaching for great things.

The animation is slick with a lot of attention to detail. Clark Kent's clumsy trips and falls look fantastic within the movie's style and those striking Superman images look fantastic in HD. As for the transfer itself, the colours here pop like fireworks. Superman’s costume looks great and Lois’s matches the impressive visuals when she gets her powers on. There's some great visual effects like smoke, shadowing and dust that all look fantastic and really I didn’t notice a damn thing wrong with the transfer overall. It's a clean, sharp and generally awesome looking image full of bright HD visuals a great art style captured well and a whole array of varying visuals to give your tech a good run.

Audio

The DTS-HD Master Audio track isn’t too bad, but it’s missing the oomph I think. Dialogue is strong and well placed in the front speakers and the forgettable score sits well in the rears. I wouldn’t say the atmospherics or sound effects were quite as effective as some of the previous DC Universe releases but in All Star Superman’s defence it’s not exactly a slug fest so it isn’t really that fair a comparison.

Extras

The disc opens with trailers for Harry Potter and the Overlong Camping Trip Deathly Hallows Part 1, Superman/Batman Apocalypse and the DC Universe game.

Lifting off with one of the biggest pulls for the release is the commentary with Bruce Timm and Grant Morrison. It’s a cracking track for any comic book fan, with Bruce Timm calling All Star Superman the ‘Quintessential Superman story of the last fifty years’. Grant Morrison provides a massive amount of insight into the project and how much he loved the adaptation and he really delves into his feelings on writing and who he believes Superman to be.

‘Superman Now’ (33:38 HD) is a fantastic documentary with Grant Morrison going into loads of details about the project. His angle, what he didn’t want to do and the themes the story delves into. In fact Grant Morrison and Dan Didio talk up the elements of the story so well with the rousing music that it was more moving than the movie itself. However countering that, Morrison talks about getting his inspiration from Joseph Campbell, Egyptian and sun god mythologies and all kinds of great stuff, there was all of sense of this in the story, shame I didn’t really feel Superman though.

As a bit of an add-on to the ‘Superman Now’ documentary, there’s ‘The Creative Flow: Incubating the Idea with Grant Morrison’ (09:36 HD), which focuses more on Morrison’s work process and once again it’s all great stuff (though they do seem to show an awful lot of the same sketches in the short runtime).

Getting into the fluffier stuff, there’s a ‘Virtual Comic’ of All Star Superman which you can’t even zoom in on, a ‘Sneak Peak at Superman/Batman Apocalypse’ (12:12 SD), two episodes of the Superman Animated Series (Blast from the Past Parts 1 & 2) (21:26 SD) and a trailer for ‘Under Red Hood’ (01:19 SD).

Next up is the ‘Sneak Peak of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights’ (11:40 HD) the next DC Universe project, which rather than the usual sketches shows off some actual animation. Looks pretty good and I feel more confident about this animated project than I do the live action one at this stage.

Overall

All Star Superman is a pretty good adaptation of the comics, but as this reviewer didn’t like the comics I wasn’t that taken with the animated movie either. The DC Universe animation is great as per usual and keeps getting and looking better in HD. The extras are some of the best the DC titles have knocked out so far and Grant Morrison really provides the goods, so all in all All Star Supes fans are in for a treat. Non fans however shouldn’t expect a change in opinion after this.

*Note: The images on this page are not representative of the Blu-ray release.

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Comments

16th February 2011 13:20#1

Gabe, I am with you on Morisson too. I never got into allstar supes either. I will pick this up just because I want my DC collection to remain complete. There are a few other guys at my comic shop that feel the same way about morrison especially with the Batman stuff..... (head scratcher)

16th February 2011 13:30#2

Yeah, I pretty much got this to keep a complete collection and in the hope that the animated version would warm me towards the story more. It didn't but I liked them talking about it on the features. (oh and it wasn't a Gabe review it was mine but glad to hear you agreed )

17th February 2011 5:20#4

I see that you mention the that DC animation feels even closer to anime, Mr. Doidge. I feel glad too if DC wants to make their animation looks more anime-like coz I always felt that DC animation looks too simple. I know that some of you will argue with less-is-enough or less-is-more or the difference in style but, take a look at some of those screenshots. It could've been better. If Japanese animators can give lotsa details for >26 episodes of anime series, why can't DC animators give details for a single animated motion picture?

17th February 2011 6:12#5

I really wanted to like this movie. I did. But then I saw that it wasn't Tim Daly doing Superman. Sorry. But no one can be Superman other than Tim Daly. It would be like having a Batman show without Kevin Conroy.

17th February 2011 7:22#6

Dumb Dealer wrote: I see that you mention the that DC animation feels even closer to anime, Mr. Doidge. I feel glad too if DC wants to make their animation looks more anime-like coz I always felt that DC animation looks too simple. I know that some of you will argue with less-is-enough or less-is-more or the difference in style but, take a look at some of those screenshots. It could've been better. If Japanese animators can give lotsa details for >26 episodes of anime series, why can't DC animators give details for a single animated motion picture?

I think they tread a clever line between honouring the comics they are adapting, the established DC animation styles and Japanese Anime. Some of the storytelling here felt very anime, the way the dilaogue was delivered and some animation techniques really captured the feel of anime. Check out the scene with Lois and Clark crosing the road, its short and sweet but it feels like a scene straight out of GITS:SAC series.

As they've always done with the DC projects, they subtly homage a lot of classic anime and seem to be getting ever closer to producing great anime style projects. As I've said in reviews, some of their shorts on previous release really got close to high quality anime. The Spectre and Jonah Hex ones felt like something on the level of Blood: The Last Vampire. It's fun watching this development unfold in each release and while I don't want them to go full on anime (mainly because I love the look of DC's animation projects), them playing in the arena can only be a good thing.

17th February 2011 7:52#7

Yeah, I agree Mr. Doidge. I love DC animation too. Their features have improved so much these days. I'm aware that they have their own style and I'm absolutely fine with that. I'm not hoping for them to replicate the anime-look, just to do a better job with the artwork. I also hope that they can replicate animes' energy, intensity, and (above all) emotion. For example, my tears came out when I was watching some episodes of Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kanon, and Disney's Tarzan. I've never felt that involved when I was watching DC features, and I've seen quite plenty.

17th February 2011 8:01#8

Besides Arkham Asylum, GM really does nothing for me. Batman RIP went way over my head, as did the entire Final Crisis saga. Still, I bought the first TPB of All Star Superman and it was a nice read - not a gamechanger of any sort. Maybe the fact that GM wrote a story that made some sense made people hail it as a masterpiece!

As of now, the only book I enjoy from the DC stable is Superman-Batman. And I'm a DC fan.

Still, I will give this a watch and see how it is compared to the other DC animated movies.

17th February 2011 14:37#10

Dumb Dealer wrote: Yeah, I agree Mr. Doidge. I love DC animation too. Their features have improved so much these days. I'm aware that they have their own style and I'm absolutely fine with that. I'm not hoping for them to replicate the anime-look, just to do a better job with the artwork. I also hope that they can replicate animes' energy, intensity, and (above all) emotion. For example, my tears came out when I was watching some episodes of Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kanon, and Disney's Tarzan. I've never felt that involved when I was watching DC features, and I've seen quite plenty.

I agree with that actually. US animation (at least the ones aimed at teens) don't seem to go near emotional moments that much do they.

18th February 2011 7:25#11

I just don't get how Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice League were so good, and not a single one of these movies has been more than entertaining. Hell, even Static Shock and that robot show had good episodes.

18th February 2011 8:14#12

Gabe Powers wrote: I just don't get how Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice League were so good, and not a single one of these movies has been more than entertaining. Hell, even Static Shock and that robot show had good episodes.

Maybe because those DC series are one of the pioneer of US-animations-that-have-the-unexpected-depth-in-their-stories in their days. While we have evolved since that era, these DC movies are not. So, the movies feel like a routine now.

18th February 2011 12:24#13

Also, I know why they do it but I wish they wouldn't cater to the non-fans as much. Origins, big screen movie ties ins and trimming sub plots out of stories is an understandable thing most of the time but throw a couple of braver projects to us fans I say.

I'd love to see a Killing Joke, Identity Crisis or even a Kingdon Come attempted.

18th February 2011 12:44#14

tenebre wrote: Gabe, I am with you on Morisson too. I never got into allstar supes either. I will pick this up just because I want my DC collection to remain complete. There are a few other guys at my comic shop that feel the same way about morrison especially with the Batman stuff..... (head scratcher)

Sorry I now realize that wasnt gabe's review. But I am with Marcus on this. ;-) I actually didnt know any other reviewers on the site read comics so I just assumed it was Gabe ;-)

18th February 2011 19:02#15

I've been wanting them to tackle Kingdom Come for a while, but it would have to be AT LEAST 2 hours long, and most of these films barely crack 80 minutes. It would be interesting to see what they would do with the animation too, since clearly Ross' work would be ridiculously expensive to animate.

18th February 2011 21:39#16

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